Blog | Pro Bono Program

Before
departing on our trip to Hickory, we conducted a training program to learn how
to draft forms in order to create a will, statutory power of attorney form,
medical power of attorney form, and a living will. Through an intensive, yet invigorating
process, we learned not only how to perform the required legal work, but also
how to build rapport with clients in order to be as compassionate and caring as
possible.

We arrived
in Morganton, NC on the morning of March 11th to begin our work with Legal Aid
of North Carolina. After a brief lecture in order to recap our prior training,
we divided into teams of two and began seeing clients under the supervision of
attorneys. We worked with clients primarily from the Morganton area, and many
were relieved to get their wills drafted. However, our work with such
individuals was not a mere legal transaction. Instead, many clients took time
to discuss their personal lives, and asked about our interests in the legal
field. Through such rapport and legal work, we were able to utilize our
education to provide a tangible benefit to members within that community.
Afterward, we retired to our hotel in nearby Hickory, NC, and ate a delicious
dinner at the local Mellow Mushroom.

The next
morning, we drove to Bethel Church in Hickory, and performed a full day of
legal service to local clients. As a Hickory native, this was a particularly
memorable experience for me, for it provided me the opportunity to perform
valuable legal service in the community in which I have spent my entire life.
With the assistance of Legal Aid, we drafted wills for many clients.
Personally, I was able to build a strong connection with several clients, and
enjoyed sharing memories with them of my childhood in the area. After
completing our work, we enjoyed an alumni dinner with a UNC law graduate, who
provided our group advice with our legal careers.

On our
last morning, we drove to Lenoir, NC, a city 20 miles to the north of Hickory.
We performed a morning session in which we drafted wills for clients local to
the Lenoir area. By drawing upon our experience from the past two days, we were
able to efficiently draft the requested documents and perform our legal
services to clients within the area. Upon completing our session with clients,
we discussed as a group what we learned from our trip. Personally, I was very
grateful for Legal Aid and UNC Pro Bono for allowing me to perform valuable
legal services to clients within my hometown.

After
finishing up our group session, we enjoyed one last delicious meal at a North
Carolina culinary staple: Cookout. We returned to Chapel Hill with significant
gratitude for the opportunity to help clients within the Hickory area, and are
eager to return in the near future.

As we began the training process to prepare for our Pro Bono
trip to Hickory, North Carolina it was impossible to imagine the tangible real
life impact our work could have on the local community. It is so easy to lose sight of why you
actually came to law school as you prepare daily and weekly for classes, and
ultimately for your final exams for the semester. Taking a Pro Bono trip, like the one to
Hickory is a remarkable way of putting everything into perspective and making
use of what we are learning in school.

We started out our first day at the Legal Aid of North
Carolina, Morganton office in Burke County. There, Andrew Cogdell ‘85 led the volunteers by patiently providing
guidance as we drafted wills, powers of attorney, healthcare powers of
attorney, and living will documents for the clients. I think we were all grateful that our first
day was the lighter of the three days as we became more familiar with the documents
and how to explain them to our clients. At
the end of the day, we had the opportunity to reflect on our experience and to
collectively learn more. We were also
able to go to dinner as a group and learn more about each other. I personally enjoyed the chance to get to
know some of the 1Ls and 2Ls I hadn’t had the opportunity to interact with
before the trip.

The second day of our trip we had the wills clinic in
Catawba County, in a local church. It
was great to see that our work could have such a meaningful impact on the
wonderful people in that community. The
clients were grateful and seemed to walk out of there with a weight lifted off of
their shoulders. Sometimes it became
very emotional as a client was facing their own mortality but ultimately they
all wanted to take the burden off their loved ones they would be leaving
behind.

The final day we spent in Caldwell County at a library in
Lenoir, North Carolina. It was a very
busy day and the reality set in that at times you have to be aware of the
potential of undue influence on your
clients. Learning to navigate the
situation by separating your client from his or her family members so you can
ensure their specific wishes are implemented, is an important lesson to learn, especially
early on in your legal career.

This was such a rewarding experience and I am so thankful
that I had an opportunity to meet so many wonderful people in the Hickory
area. Hearing stories about their lives,
their families, and about why it was so important to them to have everything in
order was amazing. As we study law and
go through the process of learning the elements, it is easy to lose sight of
the human component. While it was a
great opportunity to gain experience in preparing legal documents, client
counseling, and interviewing, I think the best part was that we were able to
provide meaningful assistance to clients who might not otherwise have the means
to hire an attorney. I think we all
enjoyed our time together and are thankful for the opportunity. I only wish I had been able to participate in
a Pro Bono trip sooner.

During our pre-trip training in Chapel Hill, none of us could have imagined the unforgettable experience we would have in just a few short days. Our training consisted of a quick crash course on hurricane relief efforts, landlord-tenant rights during natural disasters, and some of the challenges facing eastern North Carolina.

We arrived in Greenville, NC the morning of March 11 to begin our first day at Legal Aid of North Carolina. After meeting the Legal Aid staff, we enthusiastically began our research on how we could best assist these communities hardest hit by Hurricane Florence last September. To begin our research, we broke up into teams of two to focus on the various pieces such as the communities affected and the people involved. Our whole day flew by as we dove deeper into the situation and excitedly reported back to supervising attorneys when we found some new, important evidence. At the end of our first day, we left the office buzzing about the incredible progress we made. Then, to celebrate, we had a true southern dinner at Parkers Barbeque.

On our second day, we continued our research. This experience allowed us all to hone our skills in combing through public records, compiling data, and putting it in a readable form for our supervising attorneys. After we sent in our research, we were able to see the networking capabilities of Legal Aid of North Carolina when they are faced with a huge project such as this one. Over twenty legal aid attorneys across the state discussed our research over conference calls to figure out the best next steps for their clients and to give us new topics to look into.

Following our second day at Legal Aid, we went and visited Judge Callaway at the United States Bankruptcy Court of the Eastern District of North Carolina. As an alumnus, Judge Callaway generously welcomed us on a tour of the courthouse and gave us invaluable insight on his career. Finally, we finished up day two with an UNC Law School alumni dinner where we had five former graduates join us. While at dinner, the attorneys shared advice on how to navigate law school, the bar exam, and a successful legal career. All of us were extremely grateful for the opportunity to hear about their experiences.

On our last day at Legal Aid, we finished up our research and began to reach out to clients. After compiling all of the information surrounding this situation, all of us found it incredibly impactful to hear what was going on from the people actually affected. During these phone calls, we collected facts from each client and heard about their circumstances and how their lives were impacted by the hurricane.

As we finished up our final calls and said our goodbyes to the attorneys at Legal Aid, we left Greenville with an immense amount of gratitude for the experience and a better understand of the unique challenges that Eastern North Carolina faces.

On the second day of our Wilmington trip, we
reconvened at the New Hanover Public Library to review the client data from the
previous afternoon. We learned that morning that Erika Jones, a New Hanover
Assistant District Attorney (and UNC Law alumna!) would be meeting with each of
our interview teams throughout the afternoon. Although Ms. Jones had already
done some preliminary research into each client file, our role was to advocate
for each of the clients and relate the information in the affidavits and impact
statements into a compelling argument in favor of dismissing the clients’
charges.Read More... (Wilmington Spring Break Pro Bono Trip - Days 2 and 3 by Sam Spalding)No Comments | Posted by Kelly Hebrank on Tue. May 1, 2018 10:59 AMCategories: Spring Break 2018

Leading up to the
Spring Break Trip to Wilmington, I was so excited when I received an email
stating that I was one of the ten students selected to participate in the trip.
The main reason for excitement was my anticipation of the impact our efforts to
restore someone’s license, a seemingly mundane task, could have on someone’s
overall quality of life. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

The personal cases that unfolded during the trip brought to reality the emotionally sensitive cases we read about in law school and see on TV. Yet, it was surreal to see clients' emotions up close. In these tender moments we learned how to build trust with clients. While we realized there was a specific task at hand--to prepare the desired legal documents, nothing trumped the power of human emotion. As good attorneys, we should draft thorough and accurate documents, but we must never forget the importance of counseling that comes with our position.

Lawyers are often described through a variety of words: attorney, mediator, advocate, litigator, counselor, judge, prosecutor, defender, and many more. Through the Pro Bono trip to Cherokee, in my view, three more terms emerged as even better descriptions of the potential a lawyer can have on others. A lawyer is a learner, a problem-solver, and simply, a fellow human being.

Before
applying to be part of this Pro Bono Trip to Cherokee, North Carolina, I was
warned by multiple 2Ls and 3Ls that, over the course of my first long, arduous
semester in law school, it becomes easy to lose sight of why one comes to law
school to begin with. They warned that a typical 1L’s desire to join a
profession to help others often gets supplanted by a strong desire to get the
highest grades possible, and that I should participate in Pro Bono work over my
first Winter Break in order to remind myself why I wanted to become part of the
legal profession to begin with. Fearing that I was actually slipping into this
“1L trap” halfway through the semester, I applied to this Pro Bono project at
the urging of those who participated in this trip previously because it would
allow me to directly interact with clients and help them solve some of their family’s
legal problems. I am so glad they recommended I do so—it truly was such an amazing
experience.Read More... (Carolina Law Truly has A “Will”ingness to Help Others, By: Michael Peretz)No Comments | Posted by Rana J. Odeh on Fri. January 12, 2018 4:13 PMCategories: Winter Break Trip 2017

Favorite class/professor in law school: Employment law and employment discrimination, both with Associate Dean Hirsch

Pro Bono experience in law school:

While in law school, I did pro bono work at Patterson Harkavy, Tin Fulton Walker & Owen, and the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, including interviewing witnesses, and conducting legal research and writing related memoranda. I also participated in UNC’s divorce pro bono project where we helped low-income couples get divorced, and in UNC’s expunction clinic where we assisted individuals in evaluating whether they were eligible for expunctions and, if so, helped them apply for one.

What inspired or prompted you to start doing Pro Bono work?

My parents raised my three siblings and me to always help others who did not have the means and resources to get the assistance they needed. This way of thinking was instilled in us at a very early age, and it has continued to be an important pillar in my life. Throughout high school and college, I volunteered in different organizations that helped children learn to read and immigrants learn English. I chose UNC Law in large part because of its robust Pro Bono program, and when I got to UNC I took advantage of the opportunities the program offered. Now that I am a practicing attorney, it is extremely important to me that I help others who cannot pay to hire a lawyer but who, nonetheless, have been wronged. Through various organizations, mainly Legal Aid of North Carolina and the Council for Children’s Rights, I am able to continue serving others, helping them by removing some legal barriers, however small.

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